Implement sale of rice using NIN, Group tells FG
Omeiza Bilal
A group under the aegis of GCIO Nigerian Citizens and Welfare Project (GCIO-NCWP) has advised the federal government to implement its planned sales of bags of rice to citizens at 40000 Naira using the NIN.
According to the group, it would be better than focusing on civil servants or using politicians.
The Group stated that if the federal government had implemented its suggestion in the past of distributing palliatives using NIN and opening government farms in every local government as well as partnering with National Union of Road Transport Owners and Workers to subsidize transportation for citizens until the CNG buses are ready, “the hyperinflation we are experiencing in Nigeria today would have been averted to an extent.”
The Director General of the Group, Esanerovo Agbodo said: “We spent our resources to organize a Palliatives and Social Security Summit in Abuja on November 1st 2023 to bring stakeholders together Including serving Ministers in Presidential Tinubu’s cabinet to advise government on how to manage the fall out of the fuel subsidy removal but our suggestions are yet to be inculcated in government’s strategy to combat the fall out of the tough decision.
“If our suggestions were implemented a bit, it would have stemmed the rise of transport fares and also reduce the prices of food stuffs because when transporting fares for food stuffs is reduced and the demand for rice in the open market comes down, the prices of other food stuffs will also go down.”
“Yes, the federal government has many arms advising it but we still think they should also look to the advice of concerned citizens outside the government and at least inculcate some relevant items in their strategies”.
“Now, we are stating again that unless the NIN is used randomly to sell the bags of rice to reach most Nigerians whether poor or rich in order to carry every Nigerian along, some people will still hijack the process and citizens will continue to feel discriminated against, and this will stir up more negative emotions against the government’s economic policies.
“We want to stop here and we also want to state that we will continue to make our suggestions open to the government because what we need is a better Nigeria for all.”
